Big publishers like Axel Springer (Die Welt and Bild) are also supporting the law.

Essentially, the law would require search engines like Google to pay publishers for including short snippets of articles via a licensing agreement. According to Google, a host of other services like Twitter and Facebook and also blogging startups would also be targeted. Google, of course, is fighting the law, claiming that the current wording of the law might even include the use of hyperlinks.

Christoph Keese, a spokesman for Axel Springer denies that the law will hurt the right to link or quote:

What this reform does is very simple: It establishes on opt-in model for commercial copies of content and parts of content. This will lead to license agreements between publishers and aggregators.

He also says the terms of the licensing agreements would be ‘reasonable’ so that no startups would be hurt.